KARACHI: Law enforcers have detained over half a dozen suspects for questioning in order to identify the culprits who subjected a six-year-old girl to brutal criminal assault and later on threw her in a drain in injured condition near Korangi Crossing recently, officials said on Monday.

“Police have detained seven persons in the neighbourhood of the Korangi area for questioning about the rape survivor,” said the additional inspector general (AIG) of the Counter-Terrorism Department of Sindh police, Dr Sanaullah Abbasi, who also looks after the charge of AIG Karachi.

Dr Abbasi told Dawn that DNA samples of the held suspects had been sent to a laboratory in Jamshoro and the police had urged the authorities there to issue reports as soon as possible.

On Monday, Dr Abbasi also visited the crime scene in the limits of Ibrahim Hyderi police. He also met parents of the rape survivor at the Civil Hospital Karachi where the girl was admitted.

“The condition of the girl was gradually improving and she was in her senses,” said Malir SP Investigation Malik Altaf.

The officer said the investigators had not taken statement of the girl so far as she was still in trauma.

“Any meeting of the investigators with the rape survivor would be conditional with permission of the doctors concerned,” said Mr Altaf.

To a question, the SP said they had submitted a report before the Supreme Court of Pakistan about the progress so far made in the probe.

Published in Dawn January 24th, 2017